


Family Picnics (Or Why Patton Banned Croquet)

by shnuffeluv



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Background Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Family Fluff, Games, Gen, Picnics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 19:58:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17946152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/shnuffeluv
Summary: Patton wants everyone to bond a little bit, but how does he plan on doing that? Well, what better way than a picnic?





	Family Picnics (Or Why Patton Banned Croquet)

Patton was bouncing around the house, which everyone was slightly concerned about. Patton only bounced around the house for two reasons: he was feeling very, very highly energetic, or he had a plan he was working on. And considering Thomas hadn’t had too much coffee this morning, that only meant that Patton was scheming.

Logan was the first to fall victim to Patton’s plan. “Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey Logan,” Patton said, poking Logan’s cheek every time he said ‘hey’.

Looking up from his reading, Logan sighed. “What’s up, Patton?”

“I was thinking we could go out for a picnic today?” Patton asked hopefully. “I know the wildflowers are in bloom, and the weather is  _bouquet_ ,” Logan groaned at that pun, “So maybe a little family bonding is in order?”

Logan sighed. “If you can get everyone else to agree then I suppose I’ll come along.”

Patton cheered and ran down the halls of the Mind Palace to Roman’s room. “Romaaaaan! Are you willing to go on a picnic today?” he called in.

Roman threw his door open and he grinned. “Why of course, Padre, the weather is perfect for an adventure outside! Would we be able to play croquet, perhaps?”

“I might have to jump through a few  _hoops_ , but consider it done!” Patton said, pleased. “Where’s Virgil? We need to get him in on this if Logan’s gonna come with us!”

Roman got a mischievous glint in his eye. “Oh, is that so?”

“Well, yeah,” Patton replied, oblivious. “The only way he said he would be coming is if both you and Virgil joined.”

Roman snickered and shrugged. “Probably his room, I haven’t seen him around in about two days.”

Patton gasped and quickly ran to Virgil’s room, knocking on the door urgently. His dark strange son needed sunlight! “What?!” Virgil asked, opening his door a crack.

“Virgil! We’re planning on going out for a picnic, want to join? Logan said he’d come if you and Roman were, and Roman already said yes!”

Virgil sighed and weighed his options. On one hand, he really didn’t want to go out today. On the other, he wanted Patton to stay happy. He couldn’t stand the other emotional counterpart sulking, it always rubbed off on him and made his mood worse. “Yeah, sure,” he said, shaking his head and opening his door all the way.

“Yes!” Patton cheered, running back to where Logan was sitting and declared, “Virgil and Roman said they’d come!”

Logan rolled his eyes and stuck a bookmark where he was reading. “All right,” he said. “We should get food together.”

“Oh, I did that an hour ago!” Patton said, waving a hand. “I just need to pack it and grab a blanket.”

Logan blinked and took in a deep breath. “You didn’t even know if we were  _doing this_  an hour ago!”

“Yeah, but I wanted to be prepared!” Patton said, running out of the room, calling behind him, “You grab the others, I’ll grab the food!”

* * *

After the actual meal portion of the picnic in the park Roman had conjured up a while back, Logan was reading a book while Virgil was lying on his back, listening to music. Patton clapped his hands and all eyes landed on him. “What do you guys say to some games?” he asked.

Roman perked up. “I can set up croquet!” he exclaimed, waving a hand. Instantly, a croquet course appeared in the open field they were sitting in. The few people Roman had around so the place didn’t feel empty (and Virgil not-always-affectionately referred to as NPCs,) came closer and murmured to each other.

“Dibs on the purple ball,” Virgil sighed, sitting up.

“I may simply watch,” Logan said noncommittally.

Patton pouted. “But that’s no fun!” he exclaimed, going over to where the mallets and balls were, picking out a sunshiny yellow. “It’s easy to play, watch!”

Patton swung the mallet back, but in his excitement, his grip slipped and the mallet flew backwards, missing Logan by mere inches. “That,” he managed to choke out once the mallet had safely landed in the grass, “Is not how you play croquet.”

“Why don’t you teach us then, Teach?” Virgil asked, throwing a wink at Logan.

Logan stood up, straightening his tie. He picked out a blue ball and a mallet and set up. “Certainly. You place the ball in front of the first pole, and attempt to get it through a set path to a pole on the opposite side of the field before returning. Every time you get a ball through one of the hoops on the course, you get another turn, like so.” He tapped the ball through the first two hoops closest to the pole, and then hit it in the general direction of the next one. “It’s rather simple.”

They started up a game, with various NPCs watching them as the game progressed. Virgil found it slow and rather boring, but Patton was happy so he was putting up with it. That is, until he was close to finishing the game, and Roman’s ball took him away from the straight shot he had to victory. “Hey!” he exclaimed indignantly. “You ruined my shot!”

Roman was entirely too smug as he said, “Well, I suppose that’s no one’s fault but your own, hm? You should have thought through your shot more before you left it straight in the way of the goal.”

Virgil growled and brought his mallet up over his shoulder, and began advancing on Roman with it. Roman scoffed, but soon turned nervous, and started backing away. “Come on, Virgil, it’s not that big of a deal…” Roman tried, but was mercilessly cut off by Virgil’s war cry and sprint towards him.

Roman shrieked and ran, and Patton yelled, “Virgil!  _No hitting people with the croquet mallets!”_

Logan finished the game shortly after, and grabbed Virgil from where he had been chasing Roman, taking the mallet from his hand. “Isn’t there something…more productive you could be doing with your time?”

Virgil got a smirk and pulled Logan in for a kiss, which Logan happily reciprocated. A few seconds later found Roman gagging and yelling, “Get a room!”

Logan and Virgil shot back like they had been electrocuted. Logan looked at Virgil, and Virgil looked back, quirking an eyebrow. Logan silently handed the croquet mallet over, and Virgil started chasing Roman again. “ _VIRGIL!”_ Patton exclaimed. “That’s it, no more croquet! Croquet is banned from this park, from this mind entirely!”

Patton sullenly went back to the picnic blanket and sulked. This was supposed to be a good day, where had everything gone wrong? This wasn’t family bonding, not when everyone was trying to destroy each other!

When the others also returned to the picnic blanket, Virgil started brainstorming. This was the exact opposite of what everyone wanted…maybe another game could help pick up their mood…? A-ha!

“Hey guys, wanna play some Frisbee?” Virgil offered, conjuring a Frisbee and tossing it in the air.

Patton looked over, still sad but showing mild interest. Logan shrugged. Roman lit up like a Christmas tree. “Why, Hot Topic, that sounds like a wonderful idea!”

And so their game of Frisbee began. At first it was just tossing it back and forth, until Logan did some calculations and suddenly could launch the Frisbee the length of the field if the wind was going in the right direction. Roman decided to have some fun thinking up the best tricks he could when throwing the Frisbee, causing Virgil to laugh every time he fell on his face.

They played for hours, everyone laughing and beaming the entire time. When they finally got tired and returned to the Mind Palace, Virgil sighed. “We’re definitely doing that again sometime,” he said, promptly passing out on the couch.

“This day was indeed satisfactory,” Logan said, moving Virgil enough that Logan had access to the couch as well, and resumed his reading from earlier.

“You did good, Padre,” Roman said, heading to his room. “You did good.”

Patton just grinned as he headed to his room, happy that his plan had succeeded.

**Author's Note:**

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